


Nuke Possum Springs

by Passivefish32



Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Continuation, Dual Narrative, F/M, Mystery, Organized Crime, Psychological Drama, Psychological Horror, Relationship(s), Romance, Slow Burn, Strange goings on, Thriller
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 13:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16040963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Passivefish32/pseuds/Passivefish32
Summary: Months have passed since the strange events of last year. For many, Possum Springs has become a changed place. For Mae Borowski, still struggling with her inner anxieties, it’s just the same old place where she grew up. To her, things have more-or-less gone back to how they used to be – that is until she stumbles across a fearful reminder of the past and makes a mysterious new friend. Meanwhile, her estranged Aunt Molly works tirelessly to locate the missing townsfolk, and uncover the source of the town’s recent crime-wave.





	Nuke Possum Springs

It was a dark and viciously cold night. A strong breeze was blowing, the wind whistling through the gnarled, blackened branches of the nearby trees. A thin coating of frost was starting to form on the patches of grass by the side of the road and near the war memorial. Behind the smudge-like clouds, the sky sparkled with the glimmer of countless stars. Somewhere in the distance, the hooting of an owl cut through the air.

The high street of Possum Springs was deserted, or so it appeared from the scant amount of functional lighting. A few of the street lamps had fallen into disrepair and were not working – and the one just outside the pawn shop would continuously flicker on and off every few seconds. The handful of lamps that worked cast a weak, hazy light that was barely enough to keep the street lit at night. The dense woodland that surrounded the town seemed to enhance and embolden the encroaching darkness. Long, skeletal shadows climbed up the sides of the buildings, massing outside the dimly-lit confines of the street like a congregation of scheming phantoms.

The boy hung back in the shadow of a nearby alleyway, keeping himself hunched and low to the ground as he peered up and down the road. After making sure the coast was clear, he emerged into the half-light of the high street and crept towards the looming building. His nerves on-edge, he continued to shoot glances up and down the street.

Once he’d crossed the street, he stopped, gave a small sigh of relief, and straightened up. He inspected the storefront of the building opposite him, with the familiar name ‘Telezoft’ inscribed on the window. From the light of a nearby street lamp, the boy caught his own reflection in the glass.

He was dressed in a dark green bomber jacket and carried with him a heavy-looking sports bag slung over his shoulder. He kept the hood of his jacket pulled tight over his head to obscure as much of his features as possible, and also wore a dark blue scarf that covered the lower half of his face as an added precaution. If he was spotted from a distance, he wouldn’t be easily identified. Though it wasn’t immediately obvious from his appearance, he was still young. ‘Too young to be wandering around town at this time of night’ – that’s probably what they’d say.

It’d taken him almost a full hour to make his way up to the town centre, all the way up from the tracks where he lived. It was much longer than such a journey would usually take, but it paid to be cautious. He'd made his way here slowly and discreetly, sticking to the shadows to make sure he wasn’t spotted by anyone.

The gang had warned him of a larger police presence in Possum Springs over the past few days – rumour had it they’d called in a bunch of cops from outside to help with the ongoing investigation. Fortunately, this meant they were mostly stationed outside of town. Additionally, many of them were day workers who would travel in from outside, and head home to their families at the end of the day. They were unlikely to come near the town centre, so they weren’t a concern to the gang. There was only one exception: there was one cop, a local resident, who would sometimes hold the occasional night shift. He would have to be careful if she was out on patrol tonight.

When he had first joined the gang, he'd been stunned at just how easy it was for them to get away with crime. Aside from that one local cop, the town was woefully ill-equipped to deal with an organised gang. To date, not a single one of them had been caught in any of their escapades. Possum Springs was easy pickings, or so some of them had first claimed. Now, he was beginning to understand it for himself. Coming all the way out here by himself, without anyone spotting him – it really had been a bit _too_ easy.

Regardless, he knew he had to stay alert. This was an important night for the gang. Though their operation was still mostly limited to petty crimes – burglary, vandalism and the like – they were now looking to establish their stranglehold over the town and step up their activity. This evening, they’d planned to strike at several different locations at once across Possum Springs. He had been given his task to carry out and he had every intention of doing so with minimal interference.

Somewhere on the other side of town, he knew the others would be scurrying around in the dead of night, busy with their own assignments. As a general rule, most members of their group preferred to work alone and under the cover of darkness, though there were some bold enough to test their luck in broad daylight. Working during the day was always a more risky proposition – not the sort of chance he was willing to take, especially as he was still a relatively new member to the gang. Some of the others were more well-practiced and comfortable with this sort of thing.

It’d been easy to get dragged into this – too easy. For one, it was rewarding work. Though they hadn’t been together for long, the gang had already accrued a nice stash of spoils from their numerous thefts. But beyond the physical rewards, he couldn’t deny the sense of kinship he felt with his fellow members – some of which he’d known personally before joining the gang, and some not. The ones he hadn’t known, he’d quickly befriended – they were all in the same position as him, after all.

But despite their common ground, he was conscious of his differences with the other members of the gang. Many of them were thrilled by the idea of stealing from the embittered old-timers that seemed to make up so much of the town’s populace, and revelling in their ill-gotten gains. He, on the other hand, did not share their same enthusiasm. He'd never viewed himself as a criminal, even though there could be no doubt that he was very much involved in criminal activity. His mom and younger sister would be shocked if they found out about the things he was getting up to. He’d built up a reputation for himself as a good, well-behaved kid, both at school and around the town – always helpful and attentive. Even now, a niggling doubt persisted in the back of his mind – his behaviour had fallen so out-of-step with what he once was, he sometimes caught himself wondering how he’d fallen into this mess. This was never a life he’d expected for himself.

Everything had changed so suddenly. His whole life had been uprooted – a terrible shadow cast over their home. And though he’d undoubtedly fallen into bad ways, he couldn’t feel any real sense of personal responsibility for the events that’d transpired. To him, he’d had no more control over any of that stuff than he had control over which direction the wind might blow.

Similarly, his initiation into the gang had seemed an almost natural progression of events. If they’d been living in an age of conscription and he were a few years older than he was currently, he would’ve likely been drafted into his local platoon. In his mind, there was little difference between this imagined scenario and what he was doing now.

Either way, the only time he felt he had any semblance of power was when he was with the gang. What’s more, a part of him was convinced that he was simply doing what had to be done. Despite his new-found, unglamorous occupation, his way of thinking hadn’t changed one bit. Setting aside his muddled conscience, his thoughts and feelings were the same as they’d always been. It seemed to him that the only thing that hadn’t changed out of all of this was, strangely, himself.

Except for this town, of course. Nothing ever changed here.

He placed his sports bag on the ground and opened it, hastily running his eyes over the contents: a Swiss army knife; a curled length of plastic tubing hooked up to an object resembling a bicycle pump; a plastic tanker with a screw-on lid; an aluminium baseball bat – a birthday present from his father. All the tools he would need to commit crime, though he would not require them for now – perhaps he could find use for them on another evening. For tonight’s task, there was only one tool he would need.

He reached deeper into the bag and produced a can of blood-red spray paint. He removed the cap and gave the can a quick shake. He looked up from the ground, sizing up his canvas. As he eyed the front door and shop window of the Telezoft building, he felt a deep-seated anger growing within him, gnawing at his bones and numbing him from the bitter cold. He hated this place – his hometown. He had lived here all of his life, but any sort of sentimental value it could offer as his place of upbringing could offer did little to assuage his anger.

Everyone knew that Possum Springs was a dump – a constant blight on all their lives. If anything, being born here was a curse. This town was a punishment – it had punished them, and it would continue to punish them as long as they were powerless to escape. They were a disaffected and wretched youth. Any chance of them living a normal life had already been taken from them.

But soon, this would all change. They were fighting back. The day was coming when they would get their revenge on this unassuming little town. The group were already beginning to step-up their operations. For now, they were small, but they were growing in confidence with each act committed, and it was all in aid of something much bigger – he was sure of it.

Pointing the spray can at the building, he began to spell out the tag he’d been instructed to write in big letters.

* * *

 

“No way. I never noticed that before.”

It was a fairly ordinary Wednesday afternoon. The frigid gales of the night before were greatly diminished – the clouds had parted to reveal a clear, bright sunny day. The warmth of the sunshine was tempered by an intermittent, bracing cold breeze, lingering on like a ghost from the night past.

Mae had been stuck in a nonchalant mood all afternoon. Despite her most concerted efforts, her attempt at a productive day hadn’t come to fruition. After dropping out of college the previous year, it’d taken her months before she’d started looking for work properly. Living at her parents had been a comfortable existence, regardless of the stuff that’d happened in town since she’d returned. But it was only once her own money, what little she kept stowed away, had started to run dry that she realised the need to take action.

Following her customary late start, she’d spent a couple of hours tucked away in her room, searching through job listings online. She’d wanted to get a few things lined up if possible, but there was so little on offer and it was a major drag to trawl through pages and pages of roles, only to find outdated postings, duplicates, scams, and absolutely nothing that got her excited about the prospect of work. To an extent, she had expected as much. In her view, the world of work was never intended to be an exciting place, albeit a necessary one to endure, from a survival perspective. And as for the people who actually _enjoy_ their jobs, well, there’s probably something deeply wrong with them.

Out of all her recent applications, she’d only had one response – if you could consider an automated email a response. Even if there was a chance it could lead somewhere, the idea of her fate being dictated to her by a machine was not a pleasant one. Unfortunately, she was powerless to do otherwise – just one of the wonders of the modern age, she figured.

It wasn’t long before she’d gotten restless. Sometime around mid-afternoon, her concentration had completely deserted her. Her eyes weary from the glare of the light reflecting off laptop screen, she’d decided it was time to get some fresh air.

“Eff the system,” she’d sighed as she'd reached for her boots and dashed out of the house.

After checking in on her Mom at the church at the top of the hill, she'd gone to catch up with her friend, Lori Myers. Sure enough, the girl from the tracks was there, waiting for her on the rooftops high above Towne Centre. She’d managed to weasel her way out of class at the first opportunity she’d gotten and had headed into town immediately thereafter. The rooftops of the Towne Square shops were renowned across town as a good hiding-spot if you were ducking out of school or, in Mae’s case, ducking out of real-life responsibilities.

The pair were sat in their usual spot on the rooftop, huddled tightly together in shelter from the chill breeze. Ever since they’d gotten to know each other in the fall of last year, they had come to be close friends. Despite an age difference of six years between them, it’d immediately been clear that they shared a lot of common ground and interests, and derived a great deal of pleasure from each other’s company. As such, it had become a regular habit for them to meet in this same spot on the rooftops, hidden away from the adults on the ground below, where they would wile away the day chatting about whatever they felt like. Today, their subject of choice was movies.

“Yeah. He's doubled for literally half of that film,” Lori continued as she observed her friend’s shocked expression. “Rewatch it sometime. You'll notice it, for sure.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mae gasped in disbelief. “That’s just ridiculous.”

“Joel Ryder does it too. He uses stunt doubles for almost every action scene in his more recent films.”

“Well, he's sort of a has-been,” Mae remarked. She had watched some of his films when she was younger. They were entertaining, but nothing she’d really taken to – his films had struck her as outdated at the time, and now seemed to resemble something from a different era entirely.

“He’s getting old,” Lori said, picking up on Mae’s point. “A certain amount of stunt doubling is fine for someone his age, but he _really_ pushes it into the unacceptable zone.”

Mae found herself privately intrigued by the idea of an 'unacceptable zone'. She wondered what sort of oddities you could hope to find in such a place. She could imagine a whole host of fantastical and outrageous things, while crummy, past-their-prime actors were merely the vaguest curiosities – a peripheral inhabitant. “It just seems pointless to me,” Mae persisted, setting aside her reverie. “How worthless are you as an action star if you can’t do _anything_ without a stunt double?”

Lori shrugged. “I don't know. It's not really my sort of film, anyway.”

“We should get together sometime and watch a horror movie,” Mae suggested. “Something really terrifying.”

Lori seemed to brighten at this suggestion. “I know some good ones. They’ll scare your pants off.”

Mae bristled in anticipation at the idea of a horror night. She was confident that she could handle most scary films. Perhaps it was the numerous stories her Grandad used to read to her when she was little that’d bred a resilience in her. Regardless, Lori was the expert of the horror show. If she said something was scary, it would undoubtedly be worth a watch – and Mae was certain it would get a reaction out of her. Maybe they could record themselves watching it and then playback their own reactions – that would be fun. It’d be like one of those stupid challenges people record themselves performing, like jumping in an ice bath, or eating a super-hot chilli pepper whole.

Mae was suddenly conscious of how much time had passed as she noticed the sun dipping low on the horizon. She checked the time on her phone screen. It was already early evening. “Well, I should probably head home,” she announced to her companion. “I’m meeting some friends at Taco Buck tonight.”

Lori nodded slowly. “Sounds nice. Fancy place.”

“It’s not that fancy, really. They just did a good job on the refurb,” Mae stated dismissively. She quickly looked around to double-check that no-one watching them. An idea entered her head as she spotted a nearby telegraph pole. “Anyway, I’d better shoot,” she announced to Lori.

Her friend nodded again in understanding. “See you, K-”

“Don’t use the K-word,” Mae interrupted her.

Lori looked up and gave a breathless stutter, stopping herself short of using Mae’s well-renowned moniker. She wore a look of disappointment. “You’re no fun,” she muttered.

Mae leapt to her feet, giving her friend a wry smile. “I’m _all_ the fun. You'll see.”

She drew a deep breath. Then, quickly turning around, she broke into a sprint towards the edge of the roof. She leapt off the edge, grabbing hold of the telegraph pole she’d spied earlier with both hands. Pushing off with a kick, she slid all the way down the length of the pole, spinning endless circles like some crazed helter-skelter ride as she descended.

As soon as Mae’s feet touched the ground, the whole world was thrown off-balance. She stumbled dizzily to the edge of the sidewalk, almost falling over into the road. She pulled herself back in the nick of time as a car came rushing past. She hissed a muted curse under her breath, fighting back the queasy feeling in her stomach. _Reminder to self: never do that again – at least when there’s traffic!_ she cautioned herself. Getting herself killed in Possum Springs’ ‘rush hour’ would be a uniquely cruel irony.

She detected the sound of gleeful laughter coming from above. Looking up, she could see Lori looking down from the edge of the rooftop.

“Nice moves, Killer!”

Mae frowned in displeasure at the sound of her infamous nickname. _That girl's going to get it, one day,_ she ruminated, before turning and walking back home in the direction of Maple Street. She stumbled every few steps, still slightly giddy from her little act, and she sensed her mood began to lift as she replayed it in her head. It was hard to feel bad about the descent – if she hadn’t botched the landing she would’ve nailed the execution. Even if she’d been flattened by that passing car, she would’ve died a better stuntman than Joel Ryder.

As she stumbled her way home, she passed a group of town council members gathered in a circle. engaged in a heated conversation. Just behind them, the defaced Telezoft building slouched on the side of the street, looking more than a little worse for wear.

Mae had spotted the freshly-vandalized building that afternoon on her way into town. It’d taken her completely off-guard at first, and she still wondered who was responsible for hecking it up. It took balls to do something like this to a building situated right at the centre of the high street, in full vision of everyone walking past. In any case, it’d certainly riled up the town council, or 'the neighborhood watch' as they called themselves. Hanging back on the street corner, Mae was able to pick up some of their conversation.

“And what do you propose we do about it?” one of them said.

“I’m saying that, until we find the culprits, there’s nothing we _can_ do, Gary.”

“Look what they did to this place!” the man named Gary exclaimed, pointing at the ruined Telezoft building. “Do you think new business is going to want to move in when they see this mess sitting on our high street?”

A low grumble of agreement rose from the rest of the group at Gary's statement. It was a sound marred with hesitation – a distinct reluctance, signalling to Mae that they’d already endured a number of his objections that day alone. “Of course it’s a problem,” one of the ladies mentioned. “That’s why we need to respond properly. That means giving her time to-”

“Are you really so content to let this sort of thing continue?” Gary persisted. “You’re really going to let those kids run roughshod over this town and do nothing about it?”

“Are you listening to a word I’m saying?!”

One of the men stepped forward into the centre of the group, his hands raised. “Alright! Calm down, both of you,” he ordered. “Gary, we shouldn’t make any rash judgements about the criminal's identity. At this stage, we still don’t know-“

“Don't mess me around, Andrew!” Gary erupted. “You think an _adult_ did this? It was obviously a kid.” He gestured at the defaced building. “Look at the wording they used – do I need to spell it out for you? It's the same tag they used in the past – the very same one!”

Still eavesdropping, Mae shifted her gaze away from the group to the words daubed on the building in deep crimson. The paint was still slightly wet and had dripped down the wall in places, giving it a more disturbing, visceral appearance. She had recognised the tag immediately when she’d first noticed it. It was, as the council had said, a recognisable and appropriately infamous tagline: ‘Nuke Possum Springs’. It was a line that dated back to years ago, and had been bandied about and used by many of the kids in town whenever they were looking to cause trouble. Most notably, Lori had used that same tag herself when she’d defaced the underground murals in the trolley tunnel last year. Thankfully, the council had never discovered her involvement in that particular incident. When they’d met earlier that day, Mae had asked her if the Telezoft building had been another piece of her handiwork – but she’d denied any involvement in this latest act.

“This wasn’t even the only place they struck!” Gary raged on. “ _Three_ other locations reportedly vandalized in one night! It’s completely unacceptable!”

“I’m simply saying that none of this is going to help with her investigation,” Andrew explained in as calmly a manner as he could muster.

The lady named Colleen looked up and down the length of the street impatiently. “Where is Molly right now, anyway?” she asked the rest of the group. Mae, still listening in, subconsciously rolled her eyes at the mention of her aunt.

Another woman in the group came forward with the answer. “Out at the mines. She's overseeing the investigation there. She told us she’s aware of the incidents across town, but she's got her hands full right now.”

Gary crossed his arms, giving a petulant grumble. “Wonderful. Just grand. Those kids picked a fine time to pull this little stunt.” He looked at each member of the group in turn before checking his wristwatch impatiently. “Can’t someone go fetch her? Surely the folks out there can cope without her supervision for five minutes?”

“She’s only one person, Gary,” Colleen remonstrated in annoyance. “If you want to discuss policing budgets, then perhaps we should table it for-”

“Give me a break! You think I care about that garbage at a time like this?” Gary fumed. He pointed angrily at the defiled building, growing more and more red-faced. “I want action! I want to see heads roll for this outrage!”

Andrew stepped into the centre of the circle, a troubled look on his face. “Problems like this should be left for the authorities to deal with,” he mediated desperately. “We all want what's best for this town. That's why-”

“If any of you wanted what's best for this town, you’d take steps to locate the little scumbags that did this and make them pay!” Gary interrupted. “Face it – _none_ of you are serious about dealing with this town's problems!”

This time, the group reacted badly to Gary’s outburst. In an instant, the air was filled with the sound of angry protests. “Kill it, Gary!” someone yelled amongst the rumble of voices.

“You kill it!” he fired back at the group. The conversation quickly broke apart as they squabbled amongst themselves.

Mae watched the scene from a distance, quite taken aback by the display of aggression unfolding before her eyes. Though they’d always been an argumentative bunch, she’d never seen them quite like this. Things in town must be really bad right now, though she hadn’t really noticed. After the events of last year, the ensuing period of relative calm was quite comfortable by comparison. A defaced building or two was hardly enough to signal an existential threat to her hometown, though the council members clearly felt otherwise.

Regardless, the defaced building was certainly hard to miss. It’d stuck out like a sore thumb when she’d seen it earlier that day. Now that she was able to take a closer look, she began to feel a sense of admiration for the perpetrator’s handiwork – they’d certainly done a bang-up job at making a mess of the old building. They'd even put a brick through the window pane, right through the middle logo. The Telezoft, now the ‘Tel-oft’, was completely transformed from the dull, drab storefront it'd once been. Smashed up and broken, it emanated a chaotic energy that was almost enticing. The NUKE POSSUM SPRINGS tag painted in red across the door and the shards of broken glass scattered across the ground – it was a thing of strange, stirring beauty, and the stark contrast between its ruinous form and the rest of the high street was striking. Looking at it now, Mae found it utterly captivating to behold.

It was at this moment that the group became aware of the presence of someone from outside their little circle. They turned to see Mae staring at them. They eyed the young eavesdropper with cloying suspicion.

Mae quickly decided it would be best to make herself scarce, before any of them got the idea of pinning the blame on her. As much as she secretly admired the perpetrator’s work and the aggravation it’d caused, she wasn’t ready to take the flak for it. 'Never suffer for anyone's art other than your own.’ She guessed that was an old saying– or perhaps it was just something she'd made up.

As Mae was about make off in the direction of Maple Street, she stopped. Then, after a moment’s consideration, she reversed course, heading back towards the other side of town – a short distance from where the town mines were located.

She’d planned to leave those old-timers to their arguments, head home and get ready for her evening at Taco Buck – but something about what they’d said had piqued her interest. They'd mentioned something about her aunt and the mines outside town – something to do with an 'investigation'.

Part of her didn’t want to check it out. She hated the idea of another run-in with stuffy old Aunt Molly and her endless lectures on the importance of staying safe. But even though Mae was loath to risk another encounter with her, she had to know what she was doing out at the mines. If it was at all related to the events of last year, then she couldn’t afford to leave anything to chance.

She started out on her way out towards the edge of town. Behind her, she heard the members of the neighborhood watch return to their incessant bickering. By the time she was gone, they were raging away at full-force once again, their angry voices rising above the roar of the passing traffic.

* * *

 

It took Mae just over half an hour to reach her destination. The old mines were located outside town, nestled away within the hills. The dusty old path that lead up the hill was almost completely overgrown with greenery, in the middle of winter no less, attesting to its age and disuse.

Regardless of this, Mae knew there was always the chance that she might encounter someone on her way. With the interest of keeping a low profile, she’d made sure to ditch the path halfway up and take a quick detour through the woods, navigating her way through the densely packed trees until she reached the clearing where the old mines were situated. Keeping low to the ground in an attempt to hide herself in the long grass, she looked down over the ledge of the slope leading down towards the mines.

From the description that the neighborhood watch had given, she hadn’t known what to expect. But what she found waiting for her sent a shiver down her spine.

The mines, as old as the town itself and decommissioned years ago, were now bustling with activity. Dozens of uniformed individuals – police officers – patrolled the area, moving together in an orderly fashion and chatting idly. A group of them congregated near the old mines, a small squadron of police vehicle parked nearby. Facing the banks of the hills were a pair of large, plain-looking mobile units that resembled storage containers. Security cameras had been set up around the site and the entire perimeter was cordoned off with long strips of yellow and black tape.

Still shocked by the sight, Mae kept put in her hiding space and watched the officers. They patrolled the area, occasionally dipping in and out of what appeared to be the entrance to the mines, though Mae did not remember it as such. The last time she and her friends were here, they’d narrowly escaped the mine shaft with their lives. They’d witnessed those subterranean tunnels of the mine collapse before their own eyes. Since then, there was no way anyone could possibly get in or out. Their good friend, Germ, had made doubly sure of that with the sticks of dynamite he’d thrown down his family’s connecting well.

Mae paused as she recalled the events of last fall – what a strange time that'd been. And Germ was a very peculiar character, it had to be said. Ordinarily, she would’ve considered stopping by his home to check up on him, if she didn’t have other places to be that evening.

Returning her attention to the scene before her, she spotted something that’d escaped her notice. To the side of the new tunnel, there stood a massive-looking piece of mining equipment – a yellow-painted dozer. The wedge-like shovel on its front was tinged grey with rock dust. Mountains of crushed rock and debris were piled up on the far side of the mines, waiting to be collected and shipped off. The sight of it reminded her of a quarry. She watched as someone hurriedly hopped into the cockpit of the machine, revved it up with a loud roar and drove it out of the area, in the direction of the nearby woods.

Mae looked on in awe. She could scarcely believe what she was seeing. Just what the heck was going on here?

“Just what do you think you're doing out here, Mae?” someone said.

Mae jumped up in shock. She turned to her right to find her Aunt Molly standing at the top of the bank of the hill alongside her. She was dressed in her regular police uniform of grey shirt and black tie – decidedly plain and inoffensive attire. She had bags under her eyes from a long day’s work but maintained a stoic, professional alertness in her posture. She stood upright, scrutinizing Mae carefully with a stern expression, her arms folded. She looked less than amused to have discovered her nosy niece snooping around.

“Aunt Mall-Cop!” Mae exclaimed in surprise.

An unimpressed look crossed Molly's face. “You’re still calling me that, huh?” she sighed with a heavy weariness.

“What are you doing out here?” Mae asked, peering past her aunt’s shoulder. She could see the other police officers rushing around in a hurried fashion all around the vicinity of the mines. “Where did all these cops come from? No-one told me you were having a party here.”

“It’s not a party, Mae. It’s work,” Molly replied in a manner suggesting that she had no time to waste on answering silly questions. “They’re here to assist the town with an assignment.”

“Assignment? What assignment?” Mae persisted. “Is it something to do with the mines?”

“Correct,” Molly answered. “The task at hand requires a little more manpower than I’m able to provide. That’s why they’re here.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s the subject of a police investigation,” Molly stated curtly. “That’s all you need to know.”

Mae’s eyes were drawn to one of the other machines: a dozer with an enormous pneumatic drill attached to a massive mechanical arm. It was a seriously heavy-duty piece of machinery, and looked powerful enough to tear through solid rock with ease. “What’s with all the digging equipment?” Mae pondered out loud. “Are you considering a change of profession? I can’t really imagine you wearing a hard-hat.”

“Very funny, Mae,” Molly replied humorlessly. “For your information, they’re playing a vital role in enabling the investigation.”

“What does that mean?” Mae questioned.

Molly took a deep breath. “When we first got here, we ran into a little problem. It seems the old entrance collapsed – rather mysteriously, I might add. The tunnels were completely destroyed. There was no way in or out of the mines. So, in order for us to gain access, we’ve needed to create a new entrance.”

“You’re digging up the effin’ mine?” Mae exclaimed with disbelief. “That’s crazy! You can’t just-”

“Watch your language,” Molly rebuked her, eliciting a ghost of a scowl from her niece. “If you must know, permission for the excavation was granted months ago. We’ve only been able to gain access to the inside of the mines very recently.”

Mae was almost staggered by this revelation. _They’ve been digging here for **months**?_ How the heck had she missed this? She could hardly believe that such a massive operation had going on behind her back this whole time.

Her eyes returned to the digging equipment stationed around the site – huge, powerful machines built for obliterating solid rock and drilling deep into the surface of the earth. These things were _massive_. If they’d been digging here all this time, wouldn’t she have heard something at the very least?

She forced herself to consider a possible explanation for her apparent ignorance of this investigation: the area itself. It wasn’t a massive trek to reach this place from the centre of town, but it was distant enough to be considered 'slightly remote'. The area itself was tucked away within a glade of trees, and the basin-like depression where the mines were nestled effectively sheltered it from view and the surrounding hills. Perhaps this combination of factors had limited the amount of sound that could escape.

 _Not only that, but_ _I guess I haven’t had any need to come out this way for a while,_ she considered. This was, in fact, the first time she’d revisited the mining site since the fall of last year. The intervening months had been slow and astonishingly uneventful. She, along with her friends, had been focused on piecing their lives back together – to return to normality after the horrors they’d uncovered in the murky depths of the old mine. In any case, she certainly had her reasons to stay as far away from this place as she could.

Mae looked down the hill at the scrambling masses of officers. It was only now that she noticed that, amongst their number, there was also a contingent of civilian workers, labourers and machinery operators. They wore bright yellow hard-hats and moved around at a more leisurely pace than the officers, conversing amongst themselves, transporting containers full of debris across the complex and inspecting the various machines scattered around the area.

Mae watched as they went about their day, working alongside the officers. She couldn’t believe how many people were up here. It was like she’d stumbled across another town, or a small army – an invading force that’d set up camp directly outside town. “If you’ve got this many people working on this, what are _you_ doing out here?” Mae continued to her aunt. “Like, shouldn’t you be on duty in town or something?”

“I’m leading the investigation, for the time being,” Molly explained mildly. “That’s in addition to the usual community support work I do in Possum Springs.”

“Wow, that’s impressive,” Mae said, not really impressed at all. “You must be in short supply.”

“It’s pretty hectic,” Molly confessed. She'd found an opportunity to vent and had decided that, after a strenuous day’s work, she would indulge herself. “Lots going on in town right now. When I’m not digging around down there, I’m dealing with a raft of complaints from people in town.”

 _At least she had lots of police friends to hang around,_ Mae thought to herself. She was about to make another joke when she stopped herself. Something about what her aunt had just said had put her on alert. “’Down there'?” Mae asked. “You mean you’ve been down inside the mines yourself?”

Molly's ears gave a self-conscious twitch. She realised she'd given away a bit more information than she'd have liked. “I don’t like going inside that place,” she conceded. “Too dark. I prefer to stick to well-lit spaces if possible.”

“Spoken like a true mall cop!” Mae chirped.

Molly gave an impatient frown. “Look, you shouldn’t be here,” she resumed. “This area is off-limits to the public until further notice.”

Mae didn’t like that. This was her town. Having an army of police officers turn up uninvited was bad enough, but being dictated to about where you can and can’t go? That was not going to fly with Mae. “Well, you guys look awfully busy here,” she remarked. “Why can’t you tell me what’s going on in the mines? Is it something big?”

“It’s really nothing that you need to concern yourself with.”

“Do you think you’ll be out here for a long time?” Mae persisted, altering her line of questioning.

Her aunt paused to consider the question. “No idea. Considering the amount of time it took to gain access, the investigation itself could be all wrapped up by tomorrow,” she joked lamely. “Wouldn’t surprise me, at this stage.”

“So you didn’t find anyone down there?” Mae ventured.

Any look of humour immediately drained from Aunt Molly's face. She raised a questioning eyebrow. “Any _one_?” she probed.

Mae quickly recognised her misstep. The realisation was sudden and startling, as if a porcelain ornament had unexpectedly fallen from a great height and shattered into a thousand tiny pieces with a loud crash. In the back of her mind, she recalled the Telezoft building and its broken glass windows. She swallowed hard, her heart filled with dread. She could feel a cold sweat creeping up on her as she felt her aunt's eyes bore into her. “D-Did I say... I mean, I meant to...” she backtracked urgently. “A-Anything! I-I meant ‘anything’. D-Did you find...” She trailed off into a low, indistinct mumble, conscious that she’d already said far too much.

Molly stared at her niece with a deepening suspicion. “I don’t know what you expect us to have 'found', Mae,” she stated, “but if you happened to witness something unusual, you’re always welcome to tell me about it.”

“I-It’s nothing,” Mae stammered, a heavy sense of fearful guilt weighing down her shoulders and constricting her chest, like a snake squeezing the life out of its prey. Her nerves caused her to almost lose her voice completely, and she only managed to regain it in the nick of time. “Nothing,” she reaffirmed.

The silence that ensued was profoundly uncomfortable. Neither one of them seemed to know what to say to the other. Throughout their deadlock, Mae willed herself to stay calm, firing silent reminders to herself to properly regulate her breathing.

Still wary, Molly was the one to make the first move. “Well, if we’re quite done here, I should really be-”

“I-I mean, it’s just strange, that’s all,” Mae stammered. The moment had passed, and she had managed to retrieve some of her composure. Moreover, she was hesitant to let her aunt off the hook. She had come here looking for answers, after all, and her intuition told her that something very big was going on here. “Like, you’re going through all this trouble to dig deep underground. So why send people down there if you’re not hoping to find something?”

“Why, indeed,” Molly replied without emotion.

The pair were plunged into yet another uncomfortable silence. The only sound in the air came from the officers working at the mines further down the hill, and a distant hum from someone starting up one of the digging machines. Mae waited in anticipation of a response from her aunt – but the heavy silence between them persisted.

“That wasn’t an answer to my question,” Mae finally said.

“I’m not going to answer your question,” Molly stated bluntly as she checked her wristwatch. “I need to get back to work. Now, run along and stay out of trouble. I don’t want to be called out to deal with your antics.”

 _Ugh, she's the worst!_ Mae griped. It was the same as always – her aunt seemed insistent on treating her like a little kid. Still, Mae knew she wasn’t going to get past her. Aunt Molly was as stubborn as a pair of old boots, especially when it came to her job. It was one of the only qualities the pair of them had in common – and was likely the sole indication they shared any relation at all.

With nothing else to gain from sticking around, Mae turned and made her way back to town, navigating the path leading out through the trees. Behind her, Molly stood still and watched her niece disappear into the woods. Only once she was out of sight did she turn away and trudge back down the slope to return to work.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! After a fairly lengthy hiatus, I am back with another NitW story!
> 
> I said at the end of my last work that I hugely admire the dialogue in NitW and wanted to write something more dialogue-heavy in my next work. I'm hoping I'll be able to replicate some of the things I love about this game's dialogue in my own writing.
> 
> This story will be a dual-narrative between Mae and Aunt Molly. While Mae is still my favourite character, I was fascinated by the idea of exploring the world of the game through Molly's perspective.
> 
> I've spent some time planning out this story so I really hope you enjoy it! Also, I hugely appreciate all of your comments on my past work - please keep them coming. :)


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